North Korean ambassadors to the key countries have been summoned to Pyongyang for foreign policy consultations amid the deteriorating situation around the Korean Peninsula, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported on Monday.

"The issue of detained Americans is not a subject of discussion given the current state of... relations", a spokesman for the North's foreign ministry was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"A meeting of the heads of diplomatic missions is held in North Korea".

On August 10, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed the release of Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim, who was serving a life sentence in a North Korean prison for what Pyongyang called anti-state activities.

Still, the top envoys' meeting may deal with the recent spike in tensions between North Korea and U.S. over the former's missile and nuclear programme.

This is how a grand jury helps the Trump-Russia investigationWhite House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president was not likely the subject of the investigation, AFP reported . The Wall Street Journal was first to report that the legal team of special counsel Robert Mueller has started up a grand jury.

Possible topics this year could be the sanctions unanimously passed in the UN Security Council, which aim at reducing North Korea's annual worldwide trade revenue by a third, or Pyongyang's trading of dire threats with Washington last week.

Meanwhile, CIA Director Mike Pompeo has assured that an armed confrontation between the USA and North Korea is not "imminent".

Trump's message was the "best" he could deliver to someone who was putting the United States at risk, Pompeo added. Media reports over the weekend suggested similar talks have continued.

Tensions have been mounting between Washington and Pyongyang since the North's testing of two intercontinental ballistic missiles that appeared to bring much of the U.S. within range.

"North Korea organized the 43 meeting of its ambassadors in July 2015", the same spokesman has explained.